London: India's legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar was at his fuming best, blaming the Indian top order batsmen's ridiculous shots for India getting a comprehensive thumping at the hands of Australia in the finals of the World Test Championship at The Oval here on Sunday.
"The batting was in shambles today, it was just ridiculous what we saw today, the shot-making. The shots yesterday from Pujara, you would never see such a shot from someone like him. Maybe somebody would have gone to him and told him 'strike rate, strike rate'. So he was looking to do the strike rate business," he told Star Sports.
"Today, some of the shots you played, how can you expect to win? 8 wickets and you have not lasted a session, come on!"
Rohit Sharma threw his wicket away, trying to play a sweep against Nathan Lyon after making 44. Cheteshwar Pujara tried to play an upper-cut to a bouncer from Pat Cummins and was caught by Alex Carey.
Gavaskar also lashed out at Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja to go for needless shots, maybe they were conscious of their milestones.
"Yes, pretty ordinary shot, outside the off-stump. He (Virat) had been leaving till then. But then he flashes at one, maybe he was conscious of the fact that he needed 1 run to get a half-century. Happened to Jadeja I think, he played a delivery he shouldn't have in the first innings," he said.
"It was a bad shot. You'll ask me how he did that. I think you should have asked Kohli what shot he played? That was a shot outside the off-stump. If you are to win the match, you need long innings, how do you get to a century if you are going to play a shot for a delivery that was so wide outside the off-stump," he added.
Kohli threw his wicket away for 49, trying to play an expansive drive to a delivery that was bowled well outside the off stump by Scott Boland in the first hour of the day's play.
Gavaskar also bracketed Ajinkya Rahane in the same category for playing unnecessary shot when he was batting 4 short of his fifty. "Today, Ajinkya Rahane 46, he hadn't played that shot. Suddenly, why do you play that shot? I think in Test cricket, you should not be aware how much you are batting on. I know different batters have different approaches," he said.
Rahane, who made a magnificent 89 in the first innings, also threw his wicket away while trying to play an aggressive shot against Mitchell Starc. (UNI)
